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“I want to give myself a sense of closure after so many years passed,”

Because it's all about you. Such self-absorption. Did you read Tatsuya Ichihashi's memoir and were hoping to be bestowed with the same bizarre cult following he's attained? Oh that's right, you were in a cult anyway.

“I only drove a car,” he added about his role in the plot

Well then why do you need a sense of closure?

This high level Aum members who went on the run are such hypocrites. I thought they'd all achieved enlightenment? If they were enlightened, they would have just accepted their fates and not evaded arrest. What a crowd of absolute fakes. Now it's time for the other two, Naoko Kikuchi and Tatsuya Takahashi. Come out into the light you festering stains on humanity.

Wonder why the term "former member" was used. Did he quit the cult over that span of time?
Hope he doesn't slip under the statuate of limitations rule ... which, I believe, is something like 16 years. And he only faces two years in prison? Come on. This slimeball has had people sitting on edge for 17 years. He should be given at least that long behind bars. And if he was indeed the sniper ... much, much longer in the can ...

Under the Japanese Criminal Procedure Code, there is a provision that states when there is an accomplice to a murder, it temporarily stops the limitations period from running from the time the accomplice is indicted till the time the verdict is finalized.
If Hirata was the only one involved, he cannot be charged for the crime, since 15 years has passed since his crime.

Unless he knew what CrazyJoe says, he would be the greatest looser. Why would anyone successfully go into hiding for 17 years and then turn himself in? If we were in Norway, he would get away with everything easily. I hope he will write a book too about his time hiding out, I would buy that one.

A TV commentator said another way of thinking this thing out is that by turning himself in, he thus might extend the life of Aum leader Shoko Asahara, who is on death row for masterminding all the killings. That is, if Asahara is needed as a witness in the trial, he will not be executed until the whole thing is over. And, as you know, trials can take forever in this country.

Hirata, known to be skilled in shooting, is also suspected of being involved in a sniper attack in 1995 on the then national police chief who survived it, the reports said.

Funny, in the immediate years following the shooting of the NPA head, Japanese papers wrote that the would-be assasin was most certainly a foreigner because no Japanese person could possibly hit him with a shot from that distance.

He tried to turn himself into the Metropolitan Police Headquarters, announced who he was and that he was on the wanted list. The sentinel thought he was joking and told him to go to a local police station. This is one of the most wanted suspects in the country. Japan's finest can't even find the bastards when they do turn themselves in.
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20120103p2a00m0na006000c.html

This must have something to do with the fact that the sentences have been finalised for the others in custody and in a murder case the government typically waits for sentences on all apprehended suspects before hanging them. A stalling tactic. He claims otherwise. I hope they still have something for which they can keep him. Fifteen years is too short a statute limit for murder, especially in a society in which the police cannot find suspects who stand in front of them and say "I'm the one you're looking for."

@warnerbro - beat ya to it! What a farce this whole situation is - much like the authorities whole handling of the horrible crimes. I wonder what those thousands of friends/family of the victims would like to say to these garbage police officers?